Rango the Mercenary
The Mercenary
I've been playing Brawl as an Ike main since 2008. I love his power, spacing, and he's just a really cool character in the Fire Emblem games on GameCube and Wii, so I relate to him pretty well. Ike is my pride, having won a local tournament, always placing top 3 in local tournaments I attend, and even placing in the All is Brawl Top 64 ladder a few years ago. The sad thing is, I'm nowhere near as good as I thought I was. I'm good because I beat my friends. They're my major source of competition, and only one of them plays semi-competitively.
I live in Augusta, GA. Between the Tournament Center (which closed down sometime ago) and Level Up, we don't have many venues for local tournaments. All my practice comes from online, so I don't get adequate practice aside from Wi-Fi battles. Between getting 2-stocked and decimated by a Mario player and a Snake player at the last tournament I went to, or getting 3-stocked against particularly good players online who can pinpoint my every mistake, I've learned that I'm nowhere near as good as I thought I was. I have habits of repeating Fairs, rolling, air dodging, and jabbing as much as possible. This gets me in trouble with people who powershield, shieldgrab, bair repeatedly, pivot grab, and most of all, punish rolling with fatal moves.
My strategy needs an entire reboot, not just some reworking. Losing the tournament motivated me to get back into Smash because I want to be one of the absolute top players of the upcoming Wii U and 3DS versions. In the meantime, once again, I don't have many options in my area, and online is my only other choice, but I'm really looking for practice to improve my Ike.
Also, reading guides...I hate to admit it, but it's an intimidating book-read of strategy to learn. When I played Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter competitively, I knew the basics and simply had to ask a question, learn the next matchup strategy, and win from there. I could get by without learning frame data as long as I knew how to keep my distance (or rush them down) when playing as Sub-Zero or Fei Long. Smash just feels different altogether, and I've taken a brisk read at the Ike guides here with a wide-eyed nervous stare before even going halfway down the first post.
I feel like I'm missing a lot, but most importantly, I just want to know. Where do I begin?
I live in Augusta, GA. Between the Tournament Center (which closed down sometime ago) and Level Up, we don't have many venues for local tournaments. All my practice comes from online, so I don't get adequate practice aside from Wi-Fi battles. Between getting 2-stocked and decimated by a Mario player and a Snake player at the last tournament I went to, or getting 3-stocked against particularly good players online who can pinpoint my every mistake, I've learned that I'm nowhere near as good as I thought I was. I have habits of repeating Fairs, rolling, air dodging, and jabbing as much as possible. This gets me in trouble with people who powershield, shieldgrab, bair repeatedly, pivot grab, and most of all, punish rolling with fatal moves.
My strategy needs an entire reboot, not just some reworking. Losing the tournament motivated me to get back into Smash because I want to be one of the absolute top players of the upcoming Wii U and 3DS versions. In the meantime, once again, I don't have many options in my area, and online is my only other choice, but I'm really looking for practice to improve my Ike.
Also, reading guides...I hate to admit it, but it's an intimidating book-read of strategy to learn. When I played Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter competitively, I knew the basics and simply had to ask a question, learn the next matchup strategy, and win from there. I could get by without learning frame data as long as I knew how to keep my distance (or rush them down) when playing as Sub-Zero or Fei Long. Smash just feels different altogether, and I've taken a brisk read at the Ike guides here with a wide-eyed nervous stare before even going halfway down the first post.
I feel like I'm missing a lot, but most importantly, I just want to know. Where do I begin?